I Love that fact too Oliver. But I also Love the fact that it is so close on the democrat side. The turnout for the democratic socialists was miserable while that for the GOP set a new record and that is a pretty darn strong indication of where things are going IMO.

The most entertaining thing on the web right now is looking at all the spin going on. Depending on the source your reading it was a victory for Cruz or for Donald but when you go to the old media sights and MSNBC and CNN you would think that Rubio came out on top.

On the other side it was obviously a disaster for the presumptive candidate though to read much of the MSM you wouldn’t know it. There is no way Sanders should have gotten this close to winning but he did. Some say there is blood in the water and others claim it turned out the way they expected. Maybe someone can explain to me how they can say that when there are votes missing and Hillary took 6 caucuses by coin toss and Sanders is making noises about a recount? IMO the whole thing is an abortion for the DNC and they have to see they’re in real trouble.

But all in all the close results in the Democrat Socialist primary is IMO as good as news as Cruz winning. Hillary is not a well woman (and I use that trem loosely). I frankly doubt that with her state of health she is capable to sustain through the hyper activity of a tough primary campaign followed by a tough general election.

Trump defeated himself and Cruz did a nasty thing to increase Trump’s mistake
How?
Trump went after Carson, questioned his integrity and medical acumen.
Cruz’s team put out info saying that Carson was out of the race.
The result, the evangelical vote switched from Carson to Cruz, and some
might have gone from Carson to Rubio.
None the less, Trumps, speech after the vote was the best that I have heard from him.

For the dems, in part Uncle Ben is surging because of Hillary’s multiple screw ups
Also, young people have not seen or know the negatives of socialism, they only know
how the current apparent capitalism is making life hard for them, a college education,
no job, and a lot of debt and Uncle Ben would soothe their woes. It is understandable.

My take away is that I am glad to see Rubio surge because he is the one that I see that articulates everything. Yep, I know that it appears he has waffled some, but I have always
liked someone who is willing to adjust as things change.
That said, both Trump and Rubio made a Claim as to their strong Christian beliefs.
I found that quite disgusting. Really, the only two that have lived it are Carson and Huckabee.
——and Trumps ad with the bible that he stated he treasures that his mother gave him a long time ago has a fatal flaw in it that no one seems to have picked up on. If he treasures it, he would have used it, but it looks to be in pristine condition.

There’s no reason to think Cruz was at fault for what happened to Carson. It was a miscommunication in a reporter’s tweet, which then got picked up by CNN and amplified. The tweet said that Carson was not going to “NH/SC” but to Florida for some “R & R”. Representative Steve King of Iowa, a Cruz supporter, then tweeted that that was the equivalent of Carson suspending his campaign, apparently believing that the phrase “NH/SC” meant Carson was going to sit it out until after the SC primary. (That was clearly not what the reporter meant, but that’s how it was taken by King.) CNN picked up the tweets and ran with the story, and as a result, the Cruz supporters communicated it, citing CNN, in the caucus rooms, presumably without knowing it was an error.

If the CNN story had been true, it would have been a totally legitimate grounds to use to persuade Carson voters to change their vote to Cruz. CNN had reported it. Cruz’ people believed it. Presumably, it was just a misunderstanding on everyone’s part.

Carson came in at 9%. The last three Iowa polls had him at 9.0%, 8%, and 3.4%. It’s hard for me to see how the error had a material impact on Carson’s, Cruz’, or Rubio’s results.

I have great respect for Carson and he would be my third choice in this race. But it bothers me a little that he lit into Cruz and used the language he did in his accusation. Probably just the heat of the moment, but there’s clearly a lot of antipathy toward Cruz out there, most of it not justified.

It’s easy to go after Cruz for not controlling his captains better. But when you’ve got over 1,000 precincts caucusing simultaneously, how much control can any candidate have?

Consider that this could just as easily have happened in the reverse, with the Carson campaign doing it to Cruz unintentionally. If that had happened, and it cost Cruz the Iowa victory, that would have been disastrous. But I feel that Cruz would have been more understanding of it than Carson was.

My results from Iowa are in also. We bit snowy from De Moines west on I-80 but the worst of it hit west of Lincoln, Nebraska. We were going to Seward which is a few miles west of Lincoln. I-80 was closed west of Lincoln. A real mess due to drifting snow and abandoned vehicles. This delayed us about 6 hours while was sat in a truck stop in De Moines and waited for them to get the roads cleaned up there and to see if I-80 was going to reopen soon. Finally we decided just to go for it and at Lincoln get off I-80 and take Hwy 34 west to Seward. Despite I-80 being a mess, Hwy 34 turned out to be in pretty good shape. Taking a two lane road detour in a situation like that is always a risk. Quite often some steering wheel holder that shouldn’t have tried ends up having a problem and blocking the road and then your stuck.

When we got out of the place in Stewart and headed back west at 13:30 Wed. I-80 was still closed. BTW dialing the 511 network helped us keep tab in the road closures.